Rain, desperation & porridge. The venue looks like Clare Grogan’s lounge

August 30, 2020 5:59 AM

Rhodri Marsden writes about his band touring Scotland in 1990SLMedium travelling in the back of a Luton van (box truck) — “We made [getting in the truck that morning] more difficult than it should have been by making an elementary mistake: loitering around the van on a main thoroughfare and waiting for a suitable moment to climb in, in a way that made us look as guilty as fuck. The local police drove past twice, looking very interested in what we were or were not doing.

After much deliberation, the decision was made to pre-empt the actions of the cops and send 3 people to Kilmarnock in the van while the rest of us travelled by coach “for the princely sum of £3.75 each,” as the diary notes. For many of our touring party, this was the first real view we’d had of Scotland. Dunblane Cathedral, Stirling Castle. Rivers. Trees!

Band interview, so you know what you're getting in for.
The band (The Keatons) playing.
Pregnant Neck, the other band on the whole tour.
The Ex, from Amsterdam, and the best band who played on the tour.
Dawson, a Glasgow band, who also played a few sets.

rhodri previously: Christmas beds at your parents' house; Twitter's (well, his followers) worst Valentines days; Internet Hoaxes; On being in a band you've never heard of.

posted by ambrosen (8 comments total)

It is probably worth putting in an excerpt (from a band that left the tour) to show that he is aware that he was an 18 year old arsehole.

In the morning, I awoke to find that Lee, Simon W and Paul had driven off in the car, back to Essex. And there were, in fact, plenty of hard feelings. In the diary, they used an entire page to commemorate their departure. It read, in part:

Hero Worship. Arrogance. Selfishness. Posing. Snidery. Everyone’s the same. Consideration for others from the outset is all that was needed. Oh well, that’s your problem. You’ll learn, someday. Maybe. Who cares?

posted by ambrosen at 6:03 AM on August 30, 2020

Kochanski!
posted by StarkRoads at 9:52 AM on August 30, 2020 [4 favorites]

Also Rhodri (and one that should've had a previously): the disco concept album about Brexit.
posted by scruss at 10:43 AM on August 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this! Clare Grogan... awesome in Gregory's Girl as well.
posted by emmet at 11:57 AM on August 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

The Ex, from Amsterdam, a band who had a profound effect all of us in that “scene” at that time. Their musical and political aesthetic was utterly spellbinding. You’d never see a more intense, inventive, intelligent band.

TRUTH!!!!
posted by gtrwolf at 9:41 PM on August 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

Excellent read. Thanks!
posted by Kosmob0t at 9:53 AM on August 31, 2020 [1 favorite]

performance artist Mo seems excellent.
posted by ovvl at 6:02 PM on August 31, 2020

I can't get enough of tour diaries! Even if all they consist of is short entries like "then we had a crap egg sandwich from a petrol station and then we played a gig to five people" I'm all over them. I just love tour diaries, what can I say? And this one was really well written, entertaining and even a bit philosophical, so I'm in heaven right now.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 2:25 AM on September 1, 2020 [1 favorite]